The Scent of Oranges
by Cookies-and-Ink
Summary: Falling in love with your oldest friend never is easy, especially when she thinks you fancy someone else.


**A/N: This was written for **

**- Week One of the '52 Weeks of Writing' competition (using all the prompts) as well as**

**- the 'If You Dare...' challenge with the prompt 'Beating Around The Bush' and**

**- 'Take A Walk On The Wild Side' in the 'Endless Possibilities' challenge where I was given the pairing Hannah/Oliver. **

**Hope you enjoy, it was fun to write especially since I think this pairing needs a good bit more loving considering there's almost no fics for them :(**

**The Scent Of Oranges**

"Did you hear about that party?"

When Hannah grinned she scrunched her nose up. We'd agreed to go down the pitch for a bit of one - on – one practice but now I was alone with her I could barely get myself under control.

"The party that everyone in the castle is going on about? The one being thrown in the Ravenclaw tower on New Year's? God I know I can be antisocial at times but I'm not a complete hermit Ollie."

She laughed again giving me a shove on the shoulder and I shrugged.

"Hey I know for a fact you've barely left the library in about what, three months now? Geek. I keep half expecting you to announce your engagement to Madame Pince any second."

This time she shoved me so hard I stumbled.

"I could take points for that you know." I threatened.

"You take points and just wait for the next match."

I'd known Hannah for years, since we were kids. Our Dad's worked in different departments of St. Mungo's and both our Mum's were muggles, they'd become best friends pretty much straight away. Even though there were four years between us that never seemed to matter. I'd taught her to fly and when she'd gotten on the Hufflepuff team last year I cheered so loudly she went more red than I thought humanly possible.

We'd grown up closer than brother and sister and I'd always been able to tell her everything, from the first time I'd gotten drunk to when I'd choked on some shrimp and spat it out all over Anne Augustine in the year below. The past few months though something had changed…

Since when had I noticed her scrunching up her nose for Pete's sake?

I tried to distract myself for the rest of the afternoon and Hannah helped immensely. Her aim was getting better and better as time went on to the point where I was nearly knocked off my broom twice by one of her bludgers. We swapped over after an hour so I could do a little bit of Keeper practice and my heart leapt as I saw it in her eyes, the same elation I felt every time I flew. Then she laughed, air blowing in the wind, threw the quaffle and I –

"Missed! The great Oliver Wood misses! Ha!" she threw her arms in jubilation as I swooped down, swearing under my breath.

"Pull yourself together man! This is Hannah we're talking about. The little snot nosed kid who used to steal your wand and set things on fire by accident on purpose." I whispered.

A clap of thunder answered me. My head snapped around as a fork of lightning shot down and Hannah screamed, throwing her broom into a nosedive to the ground. For a horrifying moment I thought she was going to plough into the ground but she levelled out, tumbling off her broom into my arms.

"C'mon" I said, voice a little hoarse. "Let's get inside."

I picked her up, the brooms in my other hand and ran through the rain to the changing rooms. Hannah was shaking, she'd been scared of thunder and lightning since as long as I could remember. I thought about going back to the castle but it was really pouring now and I didn't even know what time it was. Recently when I spent time with Hannah the minutes just seemed to blur into hours and hours felt much too short. Clinging to me, her hair soaking wet she smelt like oranges and I hugged her tightly back, selfishly taking several deep breaths.

"You never let me tell you what I was going to tell you." I said softly to try and calm her down and she looked up at me, fear lingering in her eyes still.

"What?"

"About the party tonight."

"Oh." she murmured, eyes drifting to focus across the room before she smiled a smile that I knew was fake. "Can you cast a drying spell first, then I promise I will listen, a textbook example of adoration and rapture."

Deciding not to comment on her weird mood swings I cast the spell for both of us. She was still sitting half in my lap but she didn't seem to want to move and I was hardly going to make her.

"So I was walking down the defence corridor and Lillian yelled my name. She's the one that's organising the party tonight and she wanted to make sure I was going."

"Did she ask you to go with her?"

"What?!" I yelped, astonished. "Lillian Murphy?"

"Oh c'mon." Han snapped, sliding off my lap in a move that made me want to groan. "She's fancied you for ages. She even cheers for Gryffindor now."

"No, no!" I stuttered, shocked. "She wanted to tell me they were going to give me an award, because of everything I'd done for Quidditch at the school. Seriously, she fancies me? Urgh."

Hannah blinked then hugged me tightly.

"Congrats Ollie! That's seriously wicked!"

"No it's not, it's bloody mentally scarring that's what it is. Lillian Murphy!" I groaned again which made her laugh, shaking her head at me and successfully sending me in to a daze as I smelt oranges again, reminding me of happiness, laugher and her scrunched up nose.

"Anyway" I tried again, resolve hardening as I looked at her sitting next to me, hair a mess as always and her tie on back to front. "I've never been to the new year's party but with this award and stuff well, I'm this year going to go obviously and well… I was wondering if you'd like to come with me."

Hannah was the one shocked this time and I watched as a blush spread across her cheeks.

"Say I do come with you and tonight goes well and we end up going out… you know I will still try and kill you every time we step out on the pitch?" she said, slowly grinning my favourite grin.

"I would expect nothing less."

**Hope you enjoyed it, **

**Abs x**


End file.
